USASTRATCOM

This blog was created for USASTRATCOM Long Lines Battalion Army personnel who served in Taiwan during the 1965-72 time frame. Specifically, those who lived and worked in and around Taipei are the target. If you worked at the Grass Mountain or Gold Mountain facilities or anywhere in downtown Taipei, we would like to hear from you. All are welcome to visit and contribute to this blog. Your comments and pictures are encouraged.

Monday, September 6, 2010

SCM Kleinschmidt At Grass Mountain Taipei, Taiwan

Joining some military related groups sometimes opens doors.My thanks to the Yahoo group, Commcenter-1 which had some photos of equipment which looked really familiar. We actually used much of this equipment at Grass Mountain DCS Major Tape Relay in Taipei, Taiwan in 1968-69.

Lip service is paid to Mr. Boudot, who invented the original code in the 1790s. However, when comparing this code card with other codes, it's letter punches are identical to the simplified code New Zealander Donald Murray invented in 1901. Thanks to phulamer for including this card in his Phu Lam collection.

This 1968 Kleinschmidt catalog page displays much of the teletype equipment SCM/Kleinschmidt offered. Thanks to D. Nelson for this one.

Photo from D. Nelson of Nha Trang tape relay or possibly Phu Lam

This is a great picture of a transmitter bank. At 100 wpm, these read stations were an always-busy part of any tape relay. Not sure of the year, but it looks as though it could have been the late 60s in South Vietnam.

Photo from phulamer

Now, this is a major tape relay send bank at Phu Lam South Vietnam in 1969. Notice the message "trees" in which torn tape messages to be sent were inserted. Atop each "tree" was a routing indicator which had a card printed with the exact location the message would be sent.

Most messages were "Routine", while others were "Priority." Then came "Immediate", and finally the "stop everything and send this" "Flash" message. Messages were placed on the tree in order of sending importance from low to high. Flash messages were logged in and sent as fast as possible.

Just to give you a comparison, our RUAG send relay bank in Taipei, Taiwan had about 8 transmitters with a couple of spares. We never sent or received any message which was designated any higher than "SECRET."

Photo from phulamer

On the right are torn tape receive banks at Phu Lam. Incoming messages were read by the specialist to determine the destination. Then, the soldier then would look for the NNNN at the end of the message.

This meant to tear it off, log it in, and turn around and place it in the send tree. This became second nature after awhile.

The main thing was not to put the message on the wrong tree and not to run out of tape. At the back of this picture is a station where tapes could be corrected.

This picture of Asmara shows a tape relay center laid out almost exactly as ours in Taipei, Taiwan. This is Asmara tape relay in Africa. On the far right are the receive banks.

In the middle are the send banks. On the far left are the monitor reels which made a copy of all messages sent. In the foreground is an area which may have been used to correct rejected messages.

In all these photos, I check the floors since ours in Taipei, Taiwan were white with flecks. Every night they were scrubbed, waxed and polished. Thanks to D. Nelson for this one.

Photo from Fynisdbiddle

This final tape relay photo collage was taken at Taegu South Korea. It shows most of what one would find at a major tape relay center.

Photo from duncanancy

For those out there who know the equipment and nomenclature, here is a bunch of it from the AWA Museum in Bloomfield, New York.

i was stationed in TTY MAINT SECTION SHOP Taipei Grass Mountain then moved to shop in compound InTaipei Aug 1969 left March 31 1971 justgus@powersupply.net Oh traveled many times to Matsu and Quimoyand Tinan south end Island

Hello! Thanks for the reply. Bill Paden here. Was at Grass Mountain up until Sept. 1969. At that time the TTY Maint had not moved. Do you remember Sgt. Talbert who was over TTY? I remember Sam Christopher very well. Also a Troy Sutton.Bill

Thanks, yes he was an E-7. Chris and I went to Signal School together and knew each other well, even though he was on the quiet side. Was good friends with Sgt. Talbert, even went to his house for dinners. Shortly after theUSS Pueblo was captured (I was on duty that night by myself) Sgt. Talbert put in for me to be promoted to SP/5. We were good friends. I miss everyone that was there.Thanks GUSBill Paden

Hey, justgus---got any pictures you'd be willing to scan and share? Right now, I'm working on some photos Bill Paden sent. Did you work with Sam Christopher, Sam Cunningham, JJ Chapa or Eric White?Just send an e-mail. John

I remember a Christopher He married a Local women there had bunch Kids he was there a long time had sickness from food poisoning local stuff There was a tony eeps and harry shilinford and charlie bevelhiemer troy sutton sorry no pics what years were you therewhat did you do

Sorry for the delay. I arrived inTaipei, Grass Mountain in June 1967. I extended my stay there per Sgt. Talbert. Left Taiwan in Sept.1969. At that time all operationswere on Grass Mountain. Sam Christopher and I were in TTY school together.Bill Paden

Thanks to all of the TTY repair unit folks. Keep tuning into the blog. Bill Paden's TTY repair page will be published in May. As for the blog, just google "taipei signal army" and see some of our 100+ posts and some pictures.John

Tape Ape November 1964 to March 1966. First assignment out of Signal School. Started at downtown Taipei then was first group at Grass Mountain. Had some nice slides of Grass Mountain. Hard to convert to pictures.

When did Grass Mountain and Gold Mountain open up? We have narrowed it down to late 1965 or early 1966. No one yet has known. If you have slides, my friend, maybe someone you know has a flatbed scanner. The lid of a scanner contains a holder which allows the slides to be scanned in JPEG. Someone you know has the setup to help. We sure could use other places or even other angles of previous pictures in the blog. John